All posts tagged "movies"

Thursday, June 23, 2011

In the tug of war between atoms and bits, how much does it take to sway you one way or another? Digital download or buying DVDs - which way do you roll? I bought the first episode of "Breaking Bad" on iTunes a few weeks ago, watched it yesterday, and enjoyed it quite a bit. Since I don't currently have an active Zip.ca account (it's a DVD rental service) I'd be looking at buying Breaking Bad season one. How do the numbers work out? Read more...

Friday, October 9, 2009

There are a lot of things that I don't like about Blu-ray as a format, but as the industry has settled on it as the physical standard for HD discs, things have slowly started to improve. One such improvement is the increased proliferation of Managed Digital Copy on Blu-ray discs. It works like this: in many new Blu-ray packages, you'll have the Blu-ray disc, a regular DVD, and a small card with a code on it. When you insert the regular DVD in your computer, you'll typically get an auto-loader (pictured above) for the movie, and it will give you the ability to transfer a DVD resolution (or lower if they offer a portable device version) copy of the movie to your computer in one of two DRM-laden formats: iTunes MPEG4, or Windows Media Player WMV. In each case, the code you're provided is used to authenticate the WMV and MPEG4 versions of the movie. The neat part is that you can get both the iTunes and Windows Media Player versions of the movie - I did this with four Blu-ray discs I purchased. Read more...

Thursday, February 5, 2009

"Microsoft is gearing up to give Zune owners something to watch. The tech giant has created a shingle that will produce a slate of video programming exclusively for the portable device, its answer to Apple's iPod. The move into production is being eyed as a way to help sell more Zune players, but the effort will also create another distribution platform for Hollywood's creative community. The first project will be "Cinemash" -- a comedy series it has created with arts and entertainment mag Mean -- which bows by May. The eight-episode series, unspooling in three- to five-minute installments, will feature celebs playing the roles in movies they wish they'd landed. Mean mag had already produced a series of shorts starring James McAvoy, Elizabeth Banks, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Kingsley and Seth Rogen that appeared on its website before pairing with Microsoft. Like all the Zune shows, "Cinemash" will be ad-supported and free for download."

If you're having a hard time reading through the Hollywood language (seriously, what does "bows by May" even mean?!), here's what's basically happening: Microsoft is teaming up with a magazine called Mean which has produced some pretty cool web shorts with some famous people in the past. The shows will range in content from live-action to animated, and from comedy to urban and music. They'll initially only be available to Zune, but will eventually trickle out to Xbox Live and MSN, and then the internets as a whole. Sounds pretty cool, and I remember there being talk of this a while back, but we'll have to wait and see how it pans out when the episodes bow out (hehe) in May.